by Voxley, Vi
"I want to come with you inside me," Aria whimpered, "I need to come, please, yes, fuck me, fuck me, I'm so close, right there oh please—"
She didn't know if it was her pleas or if the general could read her body and knew she was telling the truth, but Ryden stopped the maddening teasing. Aria was flipped one more time, landing on her hands and knees with the general behind her. She let out a thrilled moan when the general took a firm hold of her hips and she screamed when he slammed himself inside with one swift thrust.
Aria fell forward, her head resting against the pillow, biting into the fabric. Her fingers were clawing at the sheets, desperate for a way to channel the surge of pleasure racking her body. Ryden stopped for only a moment to let her body adjust, but then he began to move in earnest.
With every thrust Aria took him to the hilt, his balls slapping against her ass. The pleasure was building with such speed inside her that she forgot to care who heard her and just screamed in absolute bliss.
Ryden rode her body, pulling her up to meet his powerful pace, leaving Aria to surrender herself to the motion, seeing stars before her eyes. Her body was giving in long before her desire did. She could no longer feel her legs and barely managed to hold herself up, but her pussy was wet for Ryden, needing more of him.
"Yes, oh God yes," she moaned, losing track of what she was saying. "Fuck, fuck, oh fuck oh God yes so good, yesyesyes..."
She tried to push back, but her whole body was nothing but a leaf in the wind, racked to the core by Ryden's strong body pounding into her. Aria sobbed in breathless satisfaction, feeling her orgasm come with a force that scared her, threatening to make her black out.
She tried to warn him, but the general knew already, his grip slipping on her hips, fucking her with unrelenting vigor until she was cumming, hard. Aria's entire body convulsed, the orgasm hitting almost like a shock wave, at one second a lightning strike to her body, leaving her drained in the next.
Through her own blinding climax, Aria felt the general groan behind her, his hips pounding his seed deep inside her pussy. Her body was limp in his hands when he finally pulled out after the last, sharp thrusts.
Aria collapsed on the sheets, gasping for air. For a second, she was honestly afraid she'd faint from the sheer force of her finish, but she managed to keep her consciousness at least. Nothing else worked, however. Her body felt like a doll with its strings cut. If a fire alarm sounded, she couldn't have lifted a finger to move.
Ryden pulled her into his warm, sure embrace. That was fine, Aria thought, that was good. In her gerion's arms, that's where she wanted to be. On that day and all those that followed.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Ryden
As the Conqueror healed and Aria said her goodbyes to those people she'd miss, Ryden made sure that the war wasn't forgotten. It was the one thing that Brions hated the most. Bloodshed was never a goal of its own, but if it happened, there was a lesson to be learned from it.
On the other hand, he was still a Brion general and so was Diego Grothan. And while it was true that the galaxy had many misconceptions about them, there was a lot of truth as well. They were not threatened, not by anyone.
Since the Elders had decreed that they should try to get along with the Union, the generals had simply stayed away from them. It was much better to let the politicians deal with the being nice part. They had wars to wage, and showing weakness more often than not tended to get you killed.
So now that they had been forced to interact with the council and the disastrous consequences that it brought, there were a few things Ryden simply couldn't leave the way they were.
The Fremma fleet was the easiest to deal with. After the Triumphant had jumped into the system, they'd been keeping as much distance as it was possible to have, hiding on the other side of Ilotra. To the commander of the Fremma, Ryden sent a simple message:
"I remember. You might as well do the same. We are Brions. We are always the victorious side."
He didn't wait for a response to that. Of anyone, it was the scavengers who had the practical mind to understand that notice loud and clear. In fact, now that the war was over, the fleet suddenly remembered very important matters in the opposite direction of Ilotra.
Diego found Ryden's note to be amusing, as he did enjoy his twisted sense of humor.
The Koliar were a different matter. The new commander sought no revenge upon Ryden directly, but their overall mood was still cold enough to freeze space around them. They handled them in the simplest way possible: as a challenge. When the Conqueror's engines came back online, both the Brion warships turned as one to face the Koliar to see if they'd want to settle the old score.
They didn't.
Fight for another day, Ryden thought, standing on the bridge of his ship.
He had to wonder if he'd still have the vessel if someone else had been leading the Gray Armada in Stavor's stead. He mourned the enemy, as was the Brion way with opponents that had earned their respect.
His hands had healed, but from time to time a surge of pain still went through them. It was a source of grim amusement for Ryden, as if Stavor refused to die and was living on through him.
The final matter was the council.
"General," Captain Hastien said. "A message from our ambassadors."
"Put them through."
The holoprojector came to life, casting the room in a blueish glow. The Brion ambassadors stood there, each of them broadcasting from their rooms. Their stance was fearful, Ryden noticed at once. As Brions themselves, of course they were most anxious to see if he'd make any of them pay for their silence.
Ryden had considered that, but he decided against it. The orders from the Elders had been clear. The Brions had to stay in the Union and—if possible—avoid fighting with them. That last part was added with a good amount of humor, because the Elders were Brions too after all. Not to fight with the Union wasn't really in their nature.
"How is the mood on Ilotra?" Ryden asked.
The leader of the delegation, Ambassador Goyen answered, shrugging. "As well as you might expect. Tired, but hopeful."
"What about the council?"
Goyen allowed himself a small sneer. "As ever, as well."
"That needs to change," Ryden said, perfectly aware that in his own way, Klaen was right about them all. "You need a new speaker. One who at least makes a show of impartiality."
Goyen snorted, giving him a long look.
"I suppose you have someone in mind, General," he said. "Need I point out that—"
"I'm not putting a gun to your head," Ryden cut him off coldly. "I'm merely implying who I would give my vote to."
His voice was dark and low when he spoke again, catching the ambassador's attention at once.
"The orders from the Elders were clear. We need the Union as much as they need us. But what went on during the war is unacceptable. Put someone else in charge or we will."
"Are you giving us orders on how to rule?" Goyen asked, although it was clear he knew the answer. "It's hard to sell our peaceful image like this."
"I'm making a suggestion to my representatives in the council," Ryden said dismissively and then added with a snarl, "And you should not forget. We are not peaceful. We simply choose to be. You know that as well as I do."
The ambassadors exchanged looks, but Ryden couldn't have cared less if they liked what he had to say or not.
"Quite a suggestion with two flagships in the system," Goyen said at last.
Ryden snarled, seeing the ambassadors wince like he'd hit them.
"We are merely here for the time being," he said quietly. "Perhaps you should remind the council of that. We will leave and not interfere, but we are never far away."
***
Aria brought him the news a few days later when they were preparing to leave. Her beautiful face was shining with sincere joy, her blue eyes alight with naked relief.
"Did you hear?" she asked, almost clapping. "They took Klaen down from his posit
ion as the speaker for the council. Oh, you should have seen his face! He kept screaming it was your doing."
"I might have suggested it," Ryden said, waiting for her reaction.
He'd considered not telling her, but found it to be impossible to keep secrets from his gesha. Aria looked startled for a moment.
"Did you threaten them?" she asked very quietly. "You and Diego Grothan?"
"All we did was suggest a recall of the speaker."
"But nothing else," Aria said, the plea clear in her voice.
"Nothing else," Ryden promised her. "I spoke to my ambassadors and suggested a candidate, but neither I nor Diego ever set our foot in the council room when they voted."
"So Wellack was elected honestly," Aria finished with visible relief. "They just made the right decision. For a change."
The general nodded, a smile playing on his lips, watching her simple joy. It pleased him too, to hear the Palians would lead the Union for a while. They had their differences, but at least they could hold the other responsible for honest disputes.
"Almost makes me want to stay," Aria said, looking at the screen showing Ilotra. "Now that there is hope the council will actually function like it was supposed to."
Ryden said nothing, watching his little Terran. He knew the words she was about to say long before she did, but they were all the more sweeter for the wait.
Aria turned away from the moon and walked over to him. Ryden pulled her into his arms and gently caressed her hair.
"I love you," Aria said. "There is nothing that could make me stay. I have only one place in the galaxy now, and that is by your side."
The general brushed a curl of her golden hair away from her face, looking at his gesha.
"The Brion bonds don't promise us love," he said. "They only promise devotion. I need you to know now and forever that we are the lucky ones. The moment I recognized you was only a brilliant relief for me. I knew I loved you long before that."
Aria seemed lost for words, but he didn't need her to answer. The bindings reflected the couple, mirroring back everything they were. What he felt, she was bound to feel as well.
He bent forward to capture her lips in a gentle kiss, nipping at her lips, feeling the sweetness of her mouth. There was no bitterness there, no sign that he could read that would have told him she wanted to stay. He kissed Aria until her eyes were shining.
Ryden ordered the jump some time later, leaving Ilotra behind. Standing beside him and watching the warp drive take the Conqueror to hyperspace, he noticed Aria was not looking back.
She was with him, body and spirit. His and his alone.
EPILOGUE
Aria
Briolina's sunsets were pointedly the wrong color, but Isolde had assured her she'd get used to them. Instead of the Terran dark orange and red, on Briolina there was a hint of green. Or maybe it was the vast forest she saw it through, which lay between her and the horizon.
Aria was standing on the balcony of an enormous residence in a fancy part of Briolina's capital. She was very tempted to call it a suburb, because it fit all the Terran clichés except for the white fences, but a girl couldn't have it all, could she?
She could, actually.
"I didn't think you took vacations," Aria said when she heard her gerion approach and wrap his hands around her as he often did.
He did it much more often now that her belly was growing. Ryden's fingers slid over the bump, as Aria called it, gently caressing her naked skin.
"We don't," the general said, turning her head to claim a kiss from her lips.
Aria chuckled into the kiss, but was caught in it the next second. She opened her lips, allowing Ryden to nip at them, deepening the kiss until she was gasping for air. Only then did the general release her, smiling.
"What is all this then?" Aria asked. "I never imagined you in a house."
Ryden shrugged, walking over to the table to pour them both the sweet drink Aria had taken the time to look up. Turned out, it wasn't alcohol, so she could drink it, but it had all the pleasant effects of a few cocktails.
"All generals have these," Ryden said, gesturing. "We simply never use them. Most of us, at least. I've only been here once before, I think. Faren, I imagine, doesn't even know where his is. The man was born to live on a ship."
Aria nodded, agreeing. Isolde's warning had come in handy when Ryden had introduced her to the Monster of Briolina. She had nearly screamed in fear. Faren had a reputation even bloodier than Diego Grothan, but his gesha was an amazing singer, bright and bubbly. Life was full of surprises on Briolina, it seemed.
The sun was setting over the city, their view was amazing. Aria didn't think she'd ever felt true peace—if that was what she was experiencing. All at once, it seemed they were in the middle of a huge city. She could see the lights of people's homes and the trademark flashes of high-speed transport ships, but on the other hand... it seemed she and Ryden were totally alone, cut off from the rest of Briolina by the vastness of the estate they lived in.
Although lived was a term used loosely. Ryden wasn't made to live on the planet. Like all the other generals, he belonged to the stars, with his ship beneath his feet. Even now, Aria knew it was taking a lot out of him to be there with her. It wasn't even the solid ground, it was the lack of action that irked Ryden. He functioned best in the middle of mayhem.
He'd given in to Aria's pleas when she'd insisted that a pregnant woman needed some luxuries from time to time. Like air that wasn't recycled.
Aria's life had been a blur since they left Ilotra. She'd quickly found that living on a Brion warship wasn't anything close to what she'd thought, but at the same time so much better. It was like Isolde had promised her.
There were things that were odd and those that needed some practice to get used to, but being with Ryden made up for everything. And Aria learned and adapted, to dark hallways and military drills, and the fact that possibly every person on the Conqueror had at some point heard her having sex.
The last one had been the hardest to accept for a private person like her, but after a point it stopped bothering her.
She'd kept her promise to Isolde too. They met as often as they could, even traveling together when the flagships were close enough to each other. It was there that Aria saw the first signs of what Isolde and Leiya, General Faren's gesha, called the cautious concern.
The term was clearly an understatement, since they both always arrived on the Conqueror with a squadron of guards. It made Ryden growl, asking if his fellow generals didn't trust him to keep their geshas safe.
And then he sent Aria out with twenty armed-to-the-teeth warriors every time she ventured farther than sight distance from the ship. Even more so now that she was pregnant. For the past month, Aria had been treated like she was made out of glass.
It was irritating, in a way, but also nice. Aria couldn't hold it against him when she constantly worried, even if she knew there were very few who could match her gerion. It wasn't supposed to be rational. They were bonded, in love. The unnatural fears were part of the deal.
She was grateful for Isolde and Leiya, but proud of her job. When she'd revealed her plan to design something for the harvest worlds, Aria had been afraid Ryden would not take her seriously, but she'd underestimated the general. Not three days passed before she was sitting with High Senator Eleya, talking through some of her initial ideas.
"The Union will love it, I'm sure," the woman said.
"I don't think the Union wants much to do with me right now," Aria blurted out before wondering if she was being unfair.
Eleya had laughed, nodding.
"The old Union, perhaps," she said, "but the council is no longer led by that idiot Klaen. The Palians are in charge now. They will welcome you with open arms."
That turned out to be more than true. Aria heard that the council had approved of her work immediately, after a personal affirmation by Wellack. As she heard it, the Palian had pretty sharply reminded the council of her designs o
n Ilotra and revealed the estimate of how much damage could have been avoided if they'd listened to her.
So Aria had spent months working on systems for the harvest worlds now. She was reluctant to create more weapons, so she channeled her creativity into more peaceful means of defense, like shields and covers, repositories, and transportation systems. Leiya in particular supported her vision wholeheartedly.
As a whole, Aria's life was perfect. A part of her—a distinctly human part, she insisted—was waiting for the shoe to drop, for something to go wrong. But every word Isolde had spoken to her the day they met turned out to be true. Nothing faded or got bad with Ryden, only better.
If Aria was being honest, the biggest problem she had was that Briolina's sunset was the wrong color.
Ryden kissing her neck brought her out of her reverie. Aria giggled when he tickled her, sensitive all over with the pregnancy. She let him lead her to the bed, where she lay down on the cool sheets.
Great, she thought, now all of Briolina is going to hear me fuck too.
Ryden wasn't pushing her, mindful of her condition. Aria had to fight back a grin at the weirdness of the idea of a Brion general being overly careful. It simply didn't suit them. And besides, being hormonal made her horny. She let the robe barely covering her slip across her shoulders.
That signal was enough for Ryden, who pushed her to lie back and enjoy his tongue. Aria was squirming under his hands in a matter of seconds. Her gerion had learned her body like a map over the past year, knowing exactly where all her little pleasure points were. He could play her like a finely tuned instrument, Aria joked.
She smiled blissfully, the cool air soothing her skin while everything Ryden was doing was hot, hot, hot. The general gently pushed two fingers inside her, less rash now that they had to control their passion for the sake of their child.
Aria could never have gotten tired of his teasing, but her appetite for fucking was just as insatiable. She rolled to the side, letting her general cradle her into his powerful arms again. As Ryden pushed in, slowly and lovingly, Aria let out a long moan.